Source Information

Original data: Prisoner of War Collections. Sussex, England: The Naval and Military Press.

Prisoners of War of British Army, WWII. CD. Unpublished. The Naval and Military Press, Ltd.

About UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945

This database contains a listing of World War II British Army, Navy and Air Force prisoners of war (POW). Information provided about them includes:

Name

Rank

Branch of the armed forces

Regiment

POW number

Camp type

Camp number

Camp location

Record office

Record Office number

Notes

The Geneva Convention of 1929 established the rules for the treatment of prisoners of war that were used in World War II. Over 100,000 soldiers of the British Armed Forces were captured during this war and placed in prisoner of war camps. There were two types of POW camps run by the Germans that soldiers were assigned to. These were:

Oflag – camp for officers

Stalag – camp for enlisted personnel

There were separate camps for navy, aircrews, and civilians.

The German camps were named according to a numbering system, beginning with a Roman numeral representing the military district the camp was located in. Following the Roman numeral could be a letter. This letter represented a specific camp within the military district. If the camp was a sub-camp, “/Z” was then appended to the end of the number. If the camp was a main camp, then the “/H” was appended to the end of the number. You will see this nomenclature in the “Camp number” field of this database.

This database contains approximately 28,000 index cards and 34 photograph albums of aviators who were issued with their flying licences (certificates) by the Royal Aero Club from 1910-1950. These included the first military and naval personnel to become pilots. Information listed on the index cards about the pilots includes: name, birth date, birthplace, nationality, rank or profession, date and place of certificate, and certificate number.